Aboard The Bite Truck, Keba Parker puts the finishing touches on an order of fries at San Clemente High School's first "Food Truck Monday" on Sept. 17. The school hosts several food trucks on Monday nights to help raise funds for its instrumental music program.

Jenn Lin, 27, of Irvine writes the evening's menu for The Tailgate Truck on a "Food Truck Monday" at San Clemente High School.

Julian and Kerri Husbands and their children Jamo and Kiley wait for their orders from different food trucks at San Clemente High School.

At schools across Orange County, times are tough for extracurricular activities. At San Clemente High School, a booster group is coming to the rescue of the cash-starved instrumental music program by making the campus parking lot the happening place to dine on Monday nights.

“Food Truck Mondays” is taking hold at 700 Avenida Pico, where from 5:30 to 8:30 p.m., gourmet food trucks set up shop. Curbside Bites, the trucks’ booking agency, has been sending trucks to the campus each week since Sept. 17. SCHS receives $35 for each truck to benefit the Triton Music and Arts Club.

“We’ve had six (trucks) each Monday,” said MariAnne Ridsdale, a parent who organizes the event. “They’ve been received well. The trucks are happy. The people who come are happy. Everyone is having a good time.”

The food mix may vary from week to week, but Ridsdale said a meal including a drink can be had for $8 to $12 and that the quality is first-rate. She recalls one meal featuring a quesadilla “with a Korean twist.”

The trucks have health licenses, and a lot of the vendors are trained chefs who either can’t afford to start a restaurant or prefer the food-truck system, Ridsdale said.

Food trucks tend to build a following. “They tweet and put on their Facebook page where they are going to be,” Ridsdale said.

“We’ve been doing the one at Canyon for about a year and a half now,” said Morgan Harper, Curbside Bites’ scheduling coordinator. At Canyon, it benefits the band boosters. At Foothill, it benefits the girls lacrosse team.

At the end of October, Trabuco Hills High School in Mission Viejo will begin a food-truck night from 5:30 to 8:30 Wednesdays to benefit the baseball team, Harper said.

Curbside Bites keeps a list of 95 trucks that receive email updates and can request a slot at one of the listed venues. “We try to keep it at like six to 10 at a time,” Harper said. “We’re happy about it. People really seem to enjoy it.”

Gwen Hegenwald, a San Clemente High parent volunteer, said the booster group sets up tables in the parking lot and students put together DJ music to liven up the dinner. There is talk of doing some live entertainment since it is, after all, for the music program and its 260 musicians.

Tony Soto, instrumental music director at San Clemente High, said a fellow band director recommended him to Curbside Bites, and the agency contacted him. “When they said food trucks, I was all about that,” Soto said. “The boosters took it from there.”

As school funding has dwindled in recent years, money that the Capistrano Unified School District used to contribute to the marching band, color guard, jazz band, wind ensemble and other groups has dried up. Soto said he has eight coaches, plus costs of instruments, uniforms and travel. “The only thing the school pays for is the lights and for me,” Soto said.

Parent donations and fundraising fill the void. “We don’t turn anybody down because they can’t pay for it,” Soto said. “We have a breakdown of what it costs to operate … especially the marching band. We tell everybody these are the expenses and you divide it by this many people. We ask for a donation – a portion – and our boosters fundraise (the rest).”

A shortage of funds to pay for two school buses caused the marching band to miss a road football game this season, Ridsdale said.

“We’re OK right now because of the food trucks and because some of our parents are bringing donations on a weekly basis,” Soto said.

The boosters will continue to do other fundraisers such as candy sales, a poker night and concerts. “We still are currently in need of new instruments,” Soto said. “The ones we have here are really outdated. Just one baritone saxophone costs $6,000.

“Our budget for repairing instruments is actually quite big. There’s only so much you can do before it just makes sense to buy a new instrument.”

Food trucks aren’t just helping financially but are building a sense of community, parents said. Some people mark Mondays on their calendar. Others may just be driving by and notice signs announcing the food trucks. Word of mouth does the rest.

“It’s another venue for the community to get together,” Soto said. “Everybody eats. Everybody needs dinner. So why not have a fundraiser on a Monday night?”

Fred Swegles grew up in small-town San Clemente before the freeway. He has covered the town since 1970. Today he covers San Clemente and San Juan Capistrano. He was in the second graduating class at San Clemente High School, after having spent the first two years of high school in double sessions at historic Capistrano Union High School in San Juan. When the new high school opened, he became first sports editor of the school paper, The Triton. He studied journalism and Spanish at USC on scholarship, graduating with honors. Was sports editor of the Daily Trojan. Surfed on the USC surf team. (High school surfing didn't exist back then.) With the Sun Post, he began covering competitive surfing from the mid-1970s, with the birth of the the modern world tour and the origins of high school surf teams. He got into surf photography and into world travel. Has surfed on six continents (not Antarctica). Has visited 11 San Clementes. Has written photo-illustrated profiles on most of them, with more in the works.

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